


a picture worth a thousand words

by ninash



Series: werewolves in a winter wonderland [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 25 Days of Sterek, Christmas, Derek Deserves Nice Things, Family, Feels, M/M, Short & Sweet, Sterek if you squint, idk i cried writing this so, stiles makes google his bitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-15 06:55:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13025631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninash/pseuds/ninash
Summary: Stiles thinks Derek deserves all the nice things.Family





	a picture worth a thousand words

Stiles knows how hard Christmas must be for Derek. 

It’s been nine years since his mother's death and Christmas is still bittersweet for him. But Derek. He lost everyone. Stiles knows he can relate, that he can understand. But he’ll never be able to fully understand. Losing your whole family like that. Losing all those memories. 

In the police report it had said the fire claimed everything. Lives and all their possessions. Derek doesn’t have a single photo left of his family. 

So when Christmas rolls around Stiles goes on a warpath. He spends two weeks on google finding every picture of the Hale family he can. Grainy newspaper clippings. Facebook photos. Images of the family lost in the background. Yearbook photos. Anything he can find. He makes sure to have a least one picture of every member. 

Stiles is man enough to admit he cries a little looking at the photos. Reading a professional report about a mass casualty fire and seeing them are two different things. Besides Derek's parents, Talia and Kevin Hale, he had two older siblings. Younger than Laura but older than him by two years. Philip and Lucy Hale. Twins. Two aunts, both married. Thea and Shannon. Derek and Thea look like they could have been siblings. The other Hale missing the genetic brown hair and brown eyes, instead a mane of blonde curls falling to her shoulders. Thea was married to a kindergarten teacher named Lincoln. Shannon to a beautiful herbalist named Olivia. Peter’s wife and two children were also lost. Felicia, Stephanie, and Caleb. Who were only seven and five, respectively.

There’s a white-hot anger that pulses through Stiles. They were innocent. There were children. How could anybody do this to a family? How could Kate hate them so much? If she weren’t already dead, he tells himself. 

A week before Christmas he takes a trip into the preserve, to the burnt out shell of the Hale house. Derek moved into the loft a month prior and the house is finally set to be demolished in February. There’s yellow tape around the porch railing, the windows and doors have been boarded up. He ends up finding his way in through a second story window, almost falling off the roof of the porch in the process. The boards creak under his careful steps and soot clings to the front of his shirt from where he had fallen into the room. He’s in a small room, about the size a study would be. Except there’s no charred desk. But instead, an armchair sit’s in the corner of the room. A small dresser pressed to the wall. And a crib. Peter’s kids were both too old for a crib which makes Stiles think that maybe one of Derek’s aunt’s was pregnant. The thought turns his stomach and he can taste the acid on his tongue. 

It takes him a few rooms before he finds a large study. A full wall of burnt books, a desk in the middle of the room, metal filing cabinets behind the desk. This is what he was looking for. He figures Talia Hale, oh mighty alpha, must have been a smart woman. He checks the filing cabinet first. All the drawers are empty. The desk next. He checks it and just like the cabinet it’s all empty. He takes a step back with a frown because he was really hoping he could find some pictures. It’s then that he notices the one bottom drawer isn’t the right size. The inside compartment is to shallow compared to the outside of the draw. 

“Bingo.” He whispers as his finger hooks on the false bottom and the slab of wood pops up. 

It’s a pot of gold really. How no one found this is beyond him. But god is he glad no one found this. There’s a handful of pictures of their family. And a letter. Laura’s name printed on the cream-colored envelope in crisp cursive. 

He ends up getting the photo album custom made. Brown leather with an intricate triskelion braided on the front of it. The inside pages are a charcoal grey cloth. It cost him a pretty penny but it was worth it. 

Deaton puts him in contact with a witch two cities over who can help him finish the album. He has to drive two and a half hours and his jeep breaks down twice. The witch is an older woman named Katherine who has a sharp smile. She owns a ‘magic’ shop that apparently caters to those who “are magically inclined and those who are simply curious”. Whatever that means. She uses her magic to seal the pictures to the pages and Stiles sits in her shop for an hour writing in the album. The beginning pages are all of Derek’s family. Ending with one of the pictures he found in the house. It’s a group photo of all of them. Wide smiles and dressed in bathing suits in their backyard. Stiles thinks it was taken the summer before the fire. The next handful of pages are all pictures of their pack. Some of them recently taken by Stiles himself. 

There’s one of Scott and Stiles dressed in matching hello kitty onesies and hot chocolate staches on their faces. A gem of Lydia, Allison, Erica, Cora, and Kira all laying side by side on the beach backside up with their hair pulled up and sunglasses on. One of Erica perched on Boyd's shoulders standing opposite of Isaac on Derek’s shoulders in a pool playing chicken. There’s a ton of them all. One of Stiles favorites is one of the very last pictures. He took it two days ago at the loft. Derek is in the kitchen leaning against the counter talking to Peter. Who has Christmas ornaments hanging from his ears and a giant red bow stuck to the top of his head. A wide smile on Derek's face. 

As he gets ready to leave ‘Just Magic’ he turns back and asks Katherine for one more spell. A fireproofing spell. Who agrees and waves away his promise to repay the favor. 

“A fireproofing spell is no sweat off my back.” She flicks her wrist at the book and mutters a few words. The album glows a deep red before turning back to normal. 

They all end up in the loft for Christmas dinner. Derek, Peter, and Isaac make a big feast that ends them all up on the couch and living room floor with a Christmas movie playing on low volume. Stiles starts to get nervous as they pass around presents. What if he doesn't like it?

Stiles lets them all go before him. They basically did a known santa. They all paired up to get presents. So when it ends, Stiles and Derek are the only two left. Derek goes first. He pulls a small white business card out of his pocket and hands it to Stiles. Who frowns and looks down at it. It’s to some auto place he’s never heard of. 

“I thought I’d pay to have the jeep all fixed up.” Derek mutters with rosy cheeks and rubbing the back of his neck. Stiles can’t hug him fast enough.

The jeep had been his mothers. 

It’s a little ironic, Stiles thinks. Derek is giving him back a piece of his mother and Stiles is hoping to give Derek back his whole family. 

With a small sigh and a wince he pulls the carefully wrapped album off the coffee table and hands it to Derek. The wolf opens the gift and stares down at the triskele with slightly wide eyes. He traces a finger over the sigil before slowly opening the book. Everyone watches him carefully turn the pages. Tracing his fingers over the pages. Stiles can tell when he gets to the pictures he found in the house. Derek’s eyes well up and he calls Peter over. They flip through the book together. When they get to the pictures of the pack they both crack smiles. 

On the last page before the rest of the empty pages Stiles had written in carefully cursive:

_‘You may have lost one family, but I’d like to think you also gained a second one.’_

Derek closes the book and gently hands it to Peter who opens the book back up from the beginning. Derek grabs Stiles is a tight hug. One arm around his waist and the other cradling his head. Tremors pass through the older boy as he cries silently. Stiles smiles into Derek’s shoulder and wraps his arms around him. They hug for a long time. Long enough for the pack to start bidding their goodbyes and eventually it’s just the two Hales and Stiles. 

“How did you…” Derek trails off looking back at the album. 

“A lot of time spent on google and I broke into your old house. I found a false bottom in a desk and the pictures were in it. I had a witch seal them into the book and a fireproof spell placed on the book.” Peter hugs Stiles as well. Whispering a thank you. 

“Oh. This was with the pictures.” He pulls the letter out of his back pocket. It’s a little creased now from it being in his pocket. 

“This is mom’s handwriting.” Derek looks over at Peter who nods. 

They open the letter and read it silently together. 

_My Dearest Laura,_

_I’m afraid if this has been found something awful must have befallen our pack. You were always meant to inherit my alpha abilities. Not only as the oldest but as the natural born leader of my children. Your other siblings will be your greatest betas. As I once told you, always consider the council of those closes._  
I can only imagine what you must be going through right now. For that I am sorry. I do not plead for you to seek revenge for our deaths nor do I wish for you to grieve. We are all meant to return to the earth one day. It was simply our time now.  
Take care of those who remain. I know you will be a great alpha, my beautiful daughter. It has been with you since you were born. Never doubt yourself. And never doubt those you love.  
With All My Love,  
You’re Mother 

“She never got to see this. She never got to know.” Derek has tears streaming down his face. Sniffling into his arms as it turns into full out sobs. 

Peter leaves the loft. A look of pure grief warping his face. The letter still clutched in his hand. 

Stiles and Derek end up on the couch. Derek has his head buried in the crook of Stiles' neck as he cries his heart out. It’s the most he’s cried since the funeral. 

“She should have been here. She was always meant to be alpha.” Derek’s words are a slurred mess of tears and snot. Stiles nods his head and whispers reassurances to Derek. 

They end up falling asleep like that. Wrapped around each other in passing grief and sorrow. 

It was both the most wonderful Christmas and the absolute worse. 

Stiles thinks maybe now, Derek can start healing.


End file.
